The first manner of confounding Law and Gospel is one most easily recognized--and the grossest. It is adopted, for instance, by the Papists, Socinians, and Rationalists and consists in this, that Christ is represented as a new Moses, or Lawgiver, and the Gospel turned into a doctrine of meritorious works, while at the same time those who teach that the Gospel is the message of the free grace of God in Christ are condemned and anathematized, as is done by the papists. C. F. W. Walther, Thesis 5
At this point in our ongoing discussion of these theses, we get to the point where Walther begins to point out the many varied ways that we humans tend to misuse God's Law and Gospel in our application of it. Now, in this first point of that here, you probably see some names in that thesis and may wonder, who are those people, and what did they do?
The essence of the thesis is this: If you turn what God has done in Jesus into anything other than a message of good news, you have distorted God's law and the gospel. Jesus came into the world to rescue sinful human beings and to restore them to the Father. His perfect life was lived so that His perfection could cover us. He died with our sin to take away our sin. He rose to new life so that we would have the assurance of new life. In other words, all that Jesus did was to make us right with God. To take what He did and to make it somehow into something that we still have to do is just plain turning the good news into another kind of work.
There are many different ways that we can confuse this teaching. When we say that someone has to "get right with God" before they are part of God's people, we are confusing the law and the gospel. The gospel message is that Jesus, and Jesus alone, makes them right with God. A change in their actions or behavior does not get them right with God. Yes, we hope and pray that, as a redeemed child of God, that repentance would take hold in their heart and bring about change, but that isn't a requirement. All that is required is to believe that Jesus has redeemed you and made you God's own child. So if we say that someone has to give up a sinful behavior before being one of God's children, no matter how small or large, we turn the good news into a law, and in doing so, take away from what Jesus has done for us.
The other thing that Walther points out here is that, when someone then says that the true proclamation of the good news isn't what makes us right with God, this is also messing up the teaching of the law and the gospel. So, for example, if someone were to look at the previous paragraph and say that this is wrong, that the person has to change before they can be a Christian, and that I am wrong in what I wrote, they are also confusing the law and the gospel. The gospel is simply good news. The law points out where we fall short, and the gospel tells us what God has done for us. It really is that simple. But we humans have this unfortunate tendency to take simple things and make them complicated. That's why we need to revisit things like this from time to time.
At this point in our ongoing discussion of these theses, we get to the point where Walther begins to point out the many varied ways that we humans tend to misuse God's Law and Gospel in our application of it. Now, in this first point of that here, you probably see some names in that thesis and may wonder, who are those people, and what did they do?
The essence of the thesis is this: If you turn what God has done in Jesus into anything other than a message of good news, you have distorted God's law and the gospel. Jesus came into the world to rescue sinful human beings and to restore them to the Father. His perfect life was lived so that His perfection could cover us. He died with our sin to take away our sin. He rose to new life so that we would have the assurance of new life. In other words, all that Jesus did was to make us right with God. To take what He did and to make it somehow into something that we still have to do is just plain turning the good news into another kind of work.
There are many different ways that we can confuse this teaching. When we say that someone has to "get right with God" before they are part of God's people, we are confusing the law and the gospel. The gospel message is that Jesus, and Jesus alone, makes them right with God. A change in their actions or behavior does not get them right with God. Yes, we hope and pray that, as a redeemed child of God, that repentance would take hold in their heart and bring about change, but that isn't a requirement. All that is required is to believe that Jesus has redeemed you and made you God's own child. So if we say that someone has to give up a sinful behavior before being one of God's children, no matter how small or large, we turn the good news into a law, and in doing so, take away from what Jesus has done for us.
The other thing that Walther points out here is that, when someone then says that the true proclamation of the good news isn't what makes us right with God, this is also messing up the teaching of the law and the gospel. So, for example, if someone were to look at the previous paragraph and say that this is wrong, that the person has to change before they can be a Christian, and that I am wrong in what I wrote, they are also confusing the law and the gospel. The gospel is simply good news. The law points out where we fall short, and the gospel tells us what God has done for us. It really is that simple. But we humans have this unfortunate tendency to take simple things and make them complicated. That's why we need to revisit things like this from time to time.
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